1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sausage suspension member and a method and an apparatus for suspending a sausage on suspension members from a stick.
2. Description of the Related Art
A chain of linked sausages which are manufactured by a stuffing apparatus, in terms of the size of its one link, has, for example, a stuffed diameter of 1 cm to 35 cm and a stuffed length of 3 cm to 20 cm. In order to be heat treated in a smokehouse, this sausage, after being suspended in loop form from suspension members of a conveyor connected to the stuffing apparatus, is manually or automatically delivered to a stick for heat treatment and is suspended from the stick. The following apparatuses are known as this type of apparatus.
A suspension member which is used in an apparatus for manually suspending from a stick the sausage suspended from the suspension members of the conveyor is disclosed in JP-A-1999-9180 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).
A suspension member 31 of Patent Document 1 has a projecting portion 34A extending upwardly from a narrow portion 33 for catching a chain-like stuffed casing 35 and a guide portion 34B for placing thereon the stuffed casing caught by the narrow portion 33 and for enlarging the loop opening angle of the stuffed casing, thereby facilitating the operation of inserting a stick 36 into the looped stuffed casing 35 by the operator.
Apparatuses are known which automatically deliver to a stick a sausage suspended from suspension members of a conveyor without requiring manual operation by further widening the loop and thereby making reliable the automatic insertion of the stick into the loop.
Among the above-described automatic apparatuses, disclosed in JP-A-2003-70416 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2) and WO 2009/501118 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 3) are apparatuses in which a suspension member of a conveyor is pivoted downwardly to thereby allow a sausage suspended from a suspension member to automatically drop onto a stick disposed at a position below the suspension member in a state in which the stick is kept stationary in a vertical direction.
The apparatus described in Patent Document 2 has a suspension member 102 provided pivotally on an arm member 101. To make the insertion of a stick 8 reliable, the suspension member 102 has placing portions 102D and 102E for placing a link 6B and a link 6C thereon to suspend a loop 6L in a widened form. The suspension member 102 pivots downwardly to allow the loop 6L to drop onto the stick 8.
The apparatus described in Patent Document 3 includes suspension members 34 each adapted to pivot between an angle for receiving a strand 50 of linked sausage and an angle for delivering the strand 50 onto a receiving stick 60; an end guide rail 28 and a side guide rail 30 which are each adapted to come into contact with a lower section 46 of the suspension member to set the suspension member 34 at a receiving angle; and a cam guide 32 adapted to come into contact with an upper section 44 of the suspension member to set the suspension member 34 at a delivering angle. The suspension member 34 pivots upwardly and outwardly to receive the strand 50 and subsequently the suspension member at the receiving angle with the strand 50 placed thereon pivots downwardly and inwardly to deliver the strand 50 onto the receiving stick 60.
In contrast to the above-described Patent Documents 2 and 3, disclosed in JP-A-2003-158991 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 4) is an apparatus which automatically delivers a sausage suspended from a suspension member onto the stick by upwardly moving the stick instead of downwardly pivoting the suspension member of a conveyor.
To allow a stick 10 to be inserted into a loop 9C without error, a suspension member 4 of Patent Document 4 has a narrow portion 4C for catching a sausage 9 as well as a first guide portion 4D1 for placing thereon a link 9B1 of the sausage 9 suspended from the narrow portion 4C and a second guide portion 4D2 for placing a link 9B2 thereon, and thereby suspends the sausage 9 by widening it at a wide angle. A discharging stick 10-1 which moves below a guide section 4D of the suspension member 4, while being raised, receives from the suspension member 4 a twisted portion 9A2 which is one twisted portion below a twisted portion 9A1 being caught by the suspension member 4.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,151,973B2 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 5) discloses an apparatus for automatically deliver a sausage suspended from suspension members of a conveyor onto the stick by upwardly moving the stick and downwardly pivoting the suspension members.
In the apparatus described in Patent Document 5, as link support members 110 pivot laterally outwardly and upwardly about a pivot axis 122, a lower portion 114 on which an outer link of the sausage suspended from a holding portion 124 is placed is raised upwardly and outwardly to cause a looped chain 32 suspended from a link support portion to be opened up in a direction in which the loop is removed (column 2, lines 1 to 11; column 14, lines 15 to 22; and column 14, lines 58 to 65). Next, as the link support members 110 are caused to backwardly pivot laterally inward, the lower portion 114 is lowered, and a stick 48 inserted into the opened loops is lifted laterally outward, whereby a connecting portion between the outer link placed on the lower portion 114 and a link therebelow is lifted by the stick 48, thereby removing the looped chain 32 from the link support members 110 and suspending it from the stick 48 (column 15, lines 31 to 41; column 23, line 57 to column 24, line 24).
However, with the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, the guide portion 34B is provided on one side with an opening angle θ with respect to a vertical direction, and if the opening angle θ of the guide portion 34B is made excessively large to simplify the inserting operation of the stick 36, the stuffed casing becomes difficult to be placed on the guide portion 34B when the twisted portion of the stuffed casing supplied from a stuffing apparatus is suspended from the suspension member 31.
With the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2, if the sliding of the loop 6L on a suspension member 11 is poor due to, for example, the suspension members 102 at a narrow mounting interval Z, a long time is likely required for the loop 6L to drop from the suspension member 11 and large variations are likely produced in the dropping time among the multiplicity of suspension members 11.
With the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 3, since a guide bar 51 is disposed at a position of a long distance substantially corresponding to the length of a sausage link from a mounting stem 48 (FIG. 2), a required pivot angle of the suspension member 34 for removing the sausage from the mounting stem 48 is large, so that it takes much more time in delivering a loop 56 onto the receiving stick 60.
With the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 4, since the discharging stick 10-1 retains the twisted portion 9A2 located below the narrow portion 4C, a large stroke of stick raising and much more time are required for transferring the sausage onto the stick. Further, since the discharging stick 10-1 abuts against the twisted portion 9A2 while pushing up the link 9B2 (FIG. 4-2 and FIG. 4-3), if the sausage to be produced is changed to a more elongated link 9B, the link 9B2 can possibly be bent at the portion pushed up by the stick 10-1.
With the apparatus of Patent Document 5, since the loop chain 32 is opened by pivoting in the loop removing direction the lower portion 114 of the link support member 110 with the link placed thereon (FIGS. 22A and 22B), the lower portion 114 acts as an obstacle, and therefore the stick 48 is unable to receive a connector piece 218 (FIG. 20D) suspended from the holding portion 124. The apparatus of Patent Document 5 in which a connector piece which is one below the connector piece 218 is lifted requires a longer distance for raising the stick 48 and a longer time to remove the connector piece 218 from the link support member 110. In cases where the production is changed to a sausage with a shorter link length, replacement to the link support members 110 each having the lower portion 114 of a length corresponding to the shorter link length is necessary in order to lift the connector piece which is one below the connector piece 218 by the stick 48 (column 21, lines 51 to 55), so that the versatility is low.
In addition, with this known apparatus, since the downward and inward pivoting of the link support members 110 is effected by a third member 332 and a bar 346 which clamp the link support members 110 from upper and lower sides as well as two pneumatic cylinders 334 and 336 (column 22, line 10 to column 23, line 29), so that the apparatus becomes complex.